Monday, November 01, 2010

Technology - My Column for this week

My lovely spouse Jilda would not be considered an “early adopter” when it comes to technology. In fact, she has been one of those “I’ll use a computer when you pry my typewriter out of my cold dead fingers!” kind of gals.

She complained for a month after we bought our first remote controlled TV. She took comfort in the simplicity of turning knobs, pulling levers, and flipping switches. She really didn’t want to learn how to operate a bunch of new fangled contraptions.

I, on the other hand, began working with computers in the mid 1980’s. The first PC that I worked with didn’t have a hard drive and had only 28k of memory. The watch on my wrist is more powerful that that first PC.

But this early exposure to PC’s gave me a distinct advantage because as they grew in complexity, my understanding grew.

A few years ago, I finally convinced Jilda to start learning about computers. I got her an email address and she started out slow. 

Of course, every time she sat down and tried to do anything, she had a million questions and our conversations often ended badly with her saying something like, “well that’s stupid, why did they do it like that?”

I remember one evening she tried to print something and had issues. I know this because, even from another room I could here her muttering and using some creative combinations of bad words. She did not hold Bill Gates and Microsoft in high esteem that evening. In fact she accused them all of being born out of wedlock.

When I stepped in to see if I could help, I immediately saw the problem. “You actually have to turn the printer on when you want to print something,” I said helpfully. She gave me one of those blistering death stares that singed my eyebrows, and caused me to take a step backwards involuntarily. NOTE TO SELF – Lose the sarcasm when providing technical support to spousal unit.

So from that day on, I became more tactful when helping her with PC problems.

Eventually she learned to attach pictures, use the word processor, and safely surf the internet.

Soon afterward she discovered the joys on online shopping and I began to question my decision to introduce her to the information age.

In fact, UPS had to put on a shift of overtime just to handle the increased deliveries to Empire, Alabama.

She was still a little slow to “drink the Kool Aid” when it came to technology, but she took a giant leap last year when I bought her an iPhone. 

She told people that although she had an iPhone, she only used it as a “phone”, but she can’t say that anymore.

Now she takes pictures, sends text messages, updates Facebook, Twitter, and uses the phone to play music during her yoga classes. 

She’s a good writer and I’ve been encouraging her for some time, to start an online blog. Again, she was a little hesitant, but with some prodding, she began to make nightly updates. 

When I looked today at her statistics, she has people from all over the place following her blog. You can check it out for yourself at: http://jildawatson.blogspot.com/

I had to smile when I read some of the comments that readers have left her. I think it is now safe to say, she has been assimilated.

1 comment:

  1. I was in the same boat as Jilda- slow to acclimate, but once I started blogging, all that changed. It opened up a whole new world to me, and now I wonder what I did with my time before!
    tm

    and that part about not using sarcasm when you teach technology to the spouse was very wise... Ornery has the patience of a saint, but I can try it sometimes with my questions! :)

    ReplyDelete

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